EPOS IMPACT 1000 Series Bluetooth ANC Review – Are These The Perfect Office Headphones?

The EPOS IMPACT 1000 series Bluetooth ANC headphones are designed with the open office in mind. This means it will allow you to make crystal-clear calls without being disturbed by outside noise. To do this EPOS has focused on their microphone design and adaptive ANC (Active Noise Cancelling) DSP. We put the EPOS IMPACT 1000 headphones through their paces.

EPOS IMPACT 1000 Series Specs

EPOS IMPACT 1000 Series Overview

If you are looking at the EPOS IMPACT 1000 series Bluetooth ANC headphones for your office, you’ll start off with more choices than you expect. First, you have to pick your style. Starting at $289, you’ll get a single-sided model (one earphone). An extra $100 will get you the second earphone and $40 on top of that nets you the charging the stand. The review model had full stereo earphones and charging stand.

The EPOS IMPACT 1000 series headphones can be connected to the EPOS app according to the packaging. At the time of the review, the phone app would not connect. I was able to get the Windows app to connect when I connected the headphones via the included USB cable.

EPOS IMPACT 1000 Series Setup and Use

Using the EPOS IMPACT 1000 series Bluetooth ANC headphones was very, very easy. They can connect to up to three different Bluetooth devices and switched between them very easily. Even without the app connected, the headphones worked well. Calls would mute when I moved the microphone up, the music paused when I took the headphones off, and the buttons all worked as expected.

One thing to note is that there are no left/right markings on the headphones. This is because you can select which side you want to be right or left in the app! By default, the review set was configured with the microphone on the right.

The left (non-mic side) earcup had the ANC control button. Short presses would switch between ANC on and transparent mode. A long press would enable or disable ANC mode completely. The right (mic side) earcup had the power switch (which also controlled Bluetooth pairing) as well as a volume control and USB port. On the mic is a button that can be used to control calls (answer or disconnect).

Lastly, there is an inductive charging pad installed in the middle of the headband. This allows you to hang the EPOS IMPACT 1000 series Bluetooth ANC headphones from the stand to charge them. It worked very well and was a very nice quality-of-life upgrade for only $40.

EPOS IMPACT App

As I mentioned, the phone version of the app is not currently working with the EPOS IMPACT headphones. I was able to get it to work on my Windows computer. You can control everything from the strength of the ANC to notifications to the paired devices. You really have a ton of control over these headphones. As I didn’t use the EPOS IMPACT 1000 series Bluetooth ANC headphones in this way very much, I can’t report much on the functionality. It did seem like any setting you configured did stay which is important.

EPOS IMPACT 1000 Comfort and Style

The EPOS IMPACT 1000 series Bluetooth ANC are on-ear headphones. This means that they are designed to sit on top of your ears. Many people find this type of headphones uncomfortable for long listening sessions. To combat this, it is important that the earcup and band be very, very comfortable.

I have smaller-than-average ears and tend to find many on-ear headphones more comfortable than most. This was not the case with the EPOS IMPACT 1000 series Bluetooth ANC headphones. The earcups were very soft and plush but the clamping pressure was just a little too high for long listening sessions. The headband, in particular, was uncomfortable. It was very soft to the touch but it was so thin that it caused hot-spotting on the points it touched my head.

I say “points” because the headband primarily touched two points to either side of the recessed inductive charging pad. While I do like the ease of the charging, the design made the headband uncomfortable for me.

IMPACT 1000 Series ANC and Calls

The two big bullet points that EPOS is pushing for the IMPACT 1000 series Bluetooth ANC headphones are call quality and ANC. Starting with the call quality, I can confidently say that the EPOS IMPACT 1000 series Bluetooth ANC headphones have some of the best I’ve ever experienced. The call quality was actually better than just using a cell phone and on par with using a landline. The EPOS headset is designed with adaptive microphone technology to exclude external noises and it works really well. If you need a Bluetooth headset with calls that sound as clear as possible, look no further than the EPOS IMPACT 1000 series Bluetooth ANC headphones.

The ANC, however, was much more disappointing. Even at its highest level, the ANC was middling in its performance. It did very little to voices (the main sound pollution of the office environment) and reduced outside noises only slightly. There were times I switched it off thinking I was switching it on because it was doing so little to reduce outside noise. On top of that, as is common with some ANC solutions, higher-pitched noises (like some fans) would actually be accentuated by the ANC. I’ve experienced this before but wasn’t really expecting it with a headphone of this cost.

Take Away

The EPOS IMPACT 1000 series Bluetooth ANC headphones are a bit of a mixed bag for me. The app, when I got it working, certainly had a ton of nice controls and features. The convenience features like pausing music when you take them off, muting calls by moving the mic, and inductive charging stand were nice and worked well. The call quality was unparalleled in my experience but the ANC was disappointing. Comfort wasn’t the best for me but others certainly could disagree. With a price tag starting at $289 the EPOS IMPACT 1000 series Bluetooth ANC headphones are available only at select dealers. Check out the EPOS website for one near you and try them out.